Friday, April 29, 2016

Weekly Log 18-Apr to 24-Apr-2016: State Police 5K

Monday: 5
Run on Burlingame trails with Back Road Ramble YMCA Race Director, prepping for this June 12 race.

Tuesday: 18
Challenging early morning run with Tom. Ran 5 miles solo from West Beach, Charlestown to Burlingame Campground. Flat, easy 7:15 pace; only challenge was seeing the bumps in the gravel road at start in the dark at 5:20am.

Hitched up with Tom for a 13-mile hilly ride. Multiple hills in inland Charlestown for 1,000+ feet of elevation gain. By the time we hit the last major hill climb on Buckeye Brook Road, I was really fatiguing. Tom on the other hand still had another gear to go, as he picked it up strong for the last mile plus.

Wednesday: 7
Recovery on the Blue Heron Trail.

﻿Thursday: 0
Rest day.

Friday: 16
AM: 5 miles on fun trails in Goddard Park.
PM: 11 very fast miles in Mystic with Matthew. Started and ended at Mystic Y, and ran many roads I had never been on before. That includes Cove Road, Latimore Point, and the road to Enders Island. Average 6:36 pace.

﻿﻿Saturday: 5
﻿

Started off the day with an Earth Day clean-up at
Grills Preserve, with a number of WTAC participants. This is just a
small sample of the junk of the junk we pulled out: tires,
mattresses, TV stands, bedsheets, and unfortunately,
absolute raw garbage that some residents just tossed onto Land Trust property.

Long abandoned rail tracks
at Grills!

Shimmied up the tree, careful of the broken, rotting boards,
to retrieve a hose and junk up a tree.

﻿

Former rail bridge crossing
over a river. The wooden trestles fallen
and rotting; only the rails remain.

Afternoon 5-mile run in Woody Hill.

Sunday: 7
RI State Police "Foot Pursuit" 5K. A nice early spring local 5K that draws over 700 participants. Unfortunately it was one of my slowest road 5Ks in recent years, and I'm not entirely sure why. When Matthew told me just after finishing that my time was in the 18:30s (there was no clock visible at finish), I didn't believe him, but then I found it was 18:41! To add insult to injury, the initial times were off for everyone and I was initially listed at 19:17.

I felt like I was running fast throughout the race, and continued to pass people the entire race, as I started in about 15th place and worked my way up to 4th. So what went wrong? Some plausible reasons:

I missed my first mile split and just assumed I was running in the 5:30s. Not even close - 5:55. I'm not one to stare at my watch, but maybe I need that occasional pace feedback to adjust as needed?

It was my first road 5K of the year.

I haven't been focusing on short distances, and will need to return to speedwork before the summer.

I'm just getting old and slow. Chatted with Dave Schaad for a while pre-race and he told me since age 50 he has been losing about 20 seconds per year. Yikes! Is this where I am at?

Start of the 2016 race
(Pics by Jana)

Passing just before the finish to take 4th overall

With WTAC winners Aaron and Crutch

On the plus side, the WTAC men's team won. Not sure what we'll do with our joint $500 Cardi's gift certificate. Some suggested starting and furnishing a team clubhouse. Got an additional $100 individual Cardi's gift certificate for my age group win. Not to sound ungrateful, but I think that will buy a pillow. A good day and a good race. Now I just need to figure out how to get back to faster races. Next 5K on the schedule is NSEF on Memorial Day weekend. Anything but flat!

Weekly mileage:
Run: 57

Weekly synopsis: High mileage week. Highlights were 1) 18-mile hilly run with Tom, and 2) fast Mystic 11-miler with Matthew.